Listen to Hans, LeMans

OK-I know that my rhymes are getting really lame...anyway, here is an interview with children's author and illustrator Hans Wilhelm, in which he is SO articulate about the value of REAL fairytales - in all their gory glory - in the lives of children. Yay!

Hans Wilhem interviewed by Christina Haskins from Hans Wilhelm on Vimeo.

I've Got the Power, Flower!

Today the dandelion is my favorite flower. I had a chance to tell an Ojibwa dandelion story from Anne Pellowski's Hidden Stories in Plants today. I've been wanting to tell it for a long time. I'm not inclined to transcribe it tonight, but storyteller Fran Stallings retells it here and gives it pretty good alternative attribution, too. The tricky bit for me was that I wanted to tell this story with props. I wanted to have on hand both a fresh, young, yellow dandelion and a gray dandelion gone to seed. Dandelions only last a day after you pick them, so they have to be picked on the day you will use them. Usually the patches of flowers I find on storytime day are either all yellow or all gray, but today I found both together! Over ripeness is the other problem. Oftentimes you will pick a gray puff and it will be very delicate and the seeds will all blow away. But today was PERFECT! Today the three or four gray-headed girls that I found were not yet too ripe so I was able to pick and transport them with most of the seeds intact, and the fresh yellow flowers were tall and at their most beautiful because no one has mowed their lawns yet. And to top it off, little yellow-haired Alison called out, "Can I hold it?" so I had a golden-haired maiden who stood in the front of the audience and held a dandelion during the story. Thanks, story gods!

I also brought some bleeding hearts picked fresh from my garden--pink and white both--had a lovely time sharing my bleeding heart obsession!

I'm Homa, Roma!

Julia and I visited Sarah in Rome and it was fabuloso. Wanna see some pictures? I'm on Flickr here (no account needed) and Julia is on Snapfish here (you have to have an account to view.)

Gone to Italia, Dahlia!

...and that's all I've got to say...

Move to a Cave, Maeve

Sorry I've been out of commission for a while. I'm obsessively working on some renovation and restructuring inside my digs. And it all started with a little quart of latex paint that a friend gave to me. Oops.

Anyway - I'm still telling stories with vim and vigor, verve and contentment. And the audience has a lot to say about what goes into the stories. Today the Stonecutter morphed into a Chef; a Rich Man Who Wore a Leather Jacket, Cool Polka Dot Pants and Cool Clogs; a King in a Parade in a Great Car and Wearing a Crown, and so on...you know the rest of the story--right?

Why Don't You Show Us, Lois

One of my favorite picture book artists is Lois Ehlert. Last week I read Snowballs three times! We have a giant edition of it at work which I love to use because the illustrations of the snow people are about as tall as a two-year-old child. You can view the wonderful cover and the first few pages here. And here is an interview with Lois, a gentle soul for sure:

Take That, Sailor Cat!

A Facebook conversation that just has to be shared
(between Julia, Lisa, Emily, Laura, Emily, Matt, Angela, Elizabeth, Sailor Cat and Sarah):

from Sarah - January 19 at 7:17pm
My uber cool blog...
Hi kids! So to chronicle my travels, i've decided to start a blog (really original idea, i know) but since i hope i'm not as narcissistic as some of the other people who assume that all their 400 friends will want to read their blog, I'm sending the address to you guys, (and not posting it in a status or something) hoping you actually love me enough to care about what i'm doing in Italy!!
http://allroadsleadtoroma.blogspot.com
I love you all, and I'll miss you!! and for the few i get to see while i'm there (yay!!) can't wait to see you!! :)

Sailor Cat - January 19 at 8:23pm
thanks, sweetie!

Matt - January 19 at 8:43pm
Buon viaggio

Emily - January 19 at 9:09pm
psh no.
(just kidding i loveeee you)

Laura - January 19 at 9:37pm
Cool beans!

Angela - January 19 at 9:54pm
nice! ill def check it out!

Angela - January 19 at 9:54pm
seriously who is sailor cat???

Emily - January 19 at 9:57pm
hahhahahahahahahahaha. i can't get over ang's fascination with this. i'm probably going to wake up the kids laughing so hard right now.
also the fact that you message her this in a thread in which the so-called cat is a member. hahaha. lovesss it.

Laura - January 19 at 10:02pm
bahahhahahhahahha!!

Angela - January 19 at 10:08pm
why will no one tell me????? lmao

Matt - January 19 at 10:12pm
at least she didn't drop the f-bomb

Sailor Cat - January 19 at 10:27pm
Hi Angela-are they all torturing you? So sorry-it's me, Lynne (hint: we once had dinner together before a concert.)

Sailor Cat - January 19 at 10:28pm
hello matt

Angela - January 19 at 10:49pm
ohhhh ok i was a bit confused there....lol

Laura - January 19 at 10:52pm
hahaha

Sailor Cat - January 19 at 10:56pm
imps!

Sarah - January 19 at 10:58pm
Bwahahahahaha laughing so hard at all of you!! Auntie lynne, you're such a good sport! And angela, we've all had this discussions before, you're just a little late to the party :)
Sent via Facebook Mobile

Angela - January 19 at 10:59pm
i never remember anything

Sailor Cat - January 19 at 11:01pm
love you guys too

Matt - January 19 at 11:35pm
Hi Ms. Lynne

Julia - January 20 at 11:42am
Y'all are goofy....that's all I have to say!!!
Sent via Facebook Mobile

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I got a couple of spams in my comments, so I turned on the word verification feature. (456-that means you have to type the funny word in the box before you can post your comment.)

What's the Idea, Ikea?

A sleepover on the Eve of Martin Luther King's Birthday:


Morning Manifestation Boxes:









Trying to ignore it all:


IKEA Baptism:

Golly Gee, Me

I made a couple avatars of myself using mywebface.com. Check me out! Here is incredibly put together and successful business me (ha!):

Here is me on a summer day:

This is kind of addictive. Who else can I be?